PlasticPanzers.com Forum

Okay...I've been wary of going this way but it seems there is no other way if this community is supposed to survive in the long term.

The sad truth is, we've lost lots of people. Some have changed interests, some just post their models on FB since it's more convenient. We've had virtually no new members since the big changeover last year.

Creating a Facebook page might help increase the overall reach of content published on this website. It might also cause people to comment only there without visiting the forums.

Creating and maintaining a Facebook page isn't much effort (I hope), but before I do this I'd like to hear your opinions on this matter. Maybe you know other modelling sites that successfully operate on social media? Each and any feedback on FB, what content to publish or how else to improve this site are more than welcome.

Philipp

The biggest thing with FB is the ease of posting. If you want to keep it tight knit, you make it a private page or group. You can also make it social and control all initial posts. That is how I run the groups I have. This also means anyone here has to create a FB account if they wish to be a member.

Thanks for the feedback Mark!

My idea was to use FB as some sort of showcase for the content published here. It should not replace the forums and ideally people should feel motivated to register and contribute here instead of just posting on FB. I have a feeling it won't quite work that way

Philipp

I'm member of a French forum which also runs a FB page. Both are running well. FB is basically the place where people post pictures of whatever they want. Some are not users of the forum itself.
On the forum, there is a traditional architecture with parts for WIP, finished builds, groups builds, reference data etc. which is quite impossible to manage on a FB page.
So in my opinion both are compatible. In the end it could attract new members to the forum.

Got to agree with Olivier, hard to do WIP etc on FB but FB is a good portal to the main site.

I know virtually nothing about FB so it would mean a learning curve i guess.

Vincent

Thanks everyone for your comments

The most important thing is, there will be no changes to this website whatsoever. A FB page will be nothing more than an addition for people already on FB, with no obligation to use it for any purpose.

Philipp

That is the one neat thing about FB. YOU control how it is run. You can let in everyone or no one. The choices are yours.

The other modeling forum I am a member of (KiwiModeler) is in a similar situation. The forum is much larger but most members are inactive (including me) and the number of posts has fallen off. It is a bit of a victim of it’s self, the site is very “clunky” to use and info is hard to find. At least our site is fresh, modern, well laid out and well run by Phil.

Thanks again everyone

To be honest I've done fairly little since the initial setup, thankfully all who are left know how to behave

I don't know yet when I'm going to set up the site, I probably have a couple busy days ahead in the time until Christmas.

Philipp